Banner Graphic, Volume 10, Number 138, Greencastle, Putnam County, 14 February 1980 — Page 7

opinion

LARRY GIBBS Publisher

Letter to the Editor Animal deserved better treatment

To the Editor: 1 always was told that a dog is a man’s best friend. An incident I saw yesterday makes me wonder if a girl's heart was carved out of stone. I usually take long walks daily through the city of Greencastle. As I passed a downtown store, there stood a small black short -haired dog tied with a strap onto a parking meter. It was severely cold and shaking and barking’ it looked like a frozen porcupine. It stood there over an hour freezing as people would kneel down to console it. I knelt down to pet it and it seemed hungry, also. I walked into the nearest store and asked if anyone knew whose dog it was. A girl in a blue jacket said the

Weak FBI charter could spur terrorism

By ANTHONY HARRIG AN U.S. Industrial Council Will every terrorist be given one free blast? This is the questioned embedded in an idea of a charter for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Eugene H. Methvin. writing in “The American Spectator,” warns of this serious danger. As he points out. Congress is moving towards a charter that would further restrict the FBl’s domestic intelligence and anti-terrorist activities. Sens. Kennedy and Church, among other, are supporting new restrictions. MR. METHVIN, a senior editor of Reader’s Digest and author of “The Riot Makers.” points out that “the FBl’s domestic intelligence operations have already been virtually destroyed.” Under guidelines established by former Attorney General Edward Levi, investigations were slashed in two years from 9.814 to 642. Mr. Metvin reports that more than 500 FBI agents were transferred to giving out FBI files under the Freedom of Information Act. thereby allowing identification of informants. Given this situation, it is hard to understand how government agencies can protect the President and other senior officials, let alone deal with foreign espionage and leftist terrorist groups. Mr. Methvin notes that when an original Weather Underground organizer surrended in 1977, after seven years on the FBl’s Ten Most Wanted list, the Carter Justice Department “did not even call him before a grand jury to be questioned about the 1971 bombing of the U.S. Capitol or the support apparatus that helped him and his fellow terrorists evade the FBI for so long.” AT THE SAME TIME, Attorney General Griffin Bell had a dozen lawyers on the track of senior FBI officials who had authorized electronic surveillance against the Socialist Workers Party. Not a single agent was assigned to investigate the Weather Underground itself, Mr. Methvin says.

Doing laundry at 3 a.m. to save money

Special time-of-day, seasonal utility rates way to conserve energy?

By JONATHAN DEDMON c. 1980 N.Y. Times News Service WASHINGTON Would you do your laundry at 3 a.m. if it saved money? That and similar questions are being put to consumers by the nation’s utilities as part of a new move toward more innovative pricing to encourage energy conservation and efficiency. Among the changes under way are: of-day rates in which the price of electricity varies according to when it is used. in rates. A trend away from “declining block rates” in which the more electricity used, the cheaper it becomes per unit. Such rate structures, which have been the rule rather than the exception in rate design, have been sharply criticized by conservationists as encouraging energy profligacy. The Long Island Lighting Co. (LILCo) recently put into effect what is believed to be the country’s largest time-of-day rate system for residential customers.

ERICBERNSEE Managing Editor

dog was hers. She was more interested in a paper valentine than a live animal that God created. This incident was reported to the dispatcher at the police station I have a lot of love for children and dogs and I cannot stand to see them abused In fact. I walked away crying about this pup. Now if I see an animal being abused again. I’ll be tempted to give the owner a punch with my own fist or at least a good shaking. I’m not trying to be sentimental or too involved; I’m just saying, please have more love and affection and keep all dogs and animals in a nice warm place. linogene 11. Ferrand Greencastle

To prohibt the FBI and other domestic security agencies, such as the Secret Service, from even observing the leftist elements that practice terrorism means, as one jurist has said, that “we give every terrorist one free blast.” Terrorists must be detected before they have launched an operation, not after the fact. Public opinion is gradually coming around to recognition of the need for both domestic and foreign intelligence. Even in the foreign intelligence field, however, there is a danger of weakening U.S. intelligence activities.

PROPONENTS OF A charter for the Central Intelligence Agency would set forth all the things the Agency can’t do without clearly defining its missions. Fortunately, U.S. Sens. Wallop and Moynihan have introduced legislation aimed at remedying that situation. They stress the things the CIA can and must do to protect the American people against secret warfare. One of the most pressing national needs is for limiting the number of members of Congress who have access to CIA plans for covert operations. Today, more than 200 members must be kept advised. Obviously, there can’t be anything secret about an intelligence operation which is described in advance to 200 people on Capitol Hill. Information should be limited to the two intelligence committees of Congress. On the domestic front, the operations of the Soviet Union’s KGB can only be countered if the Congress will, in Mr. Methvin’s words, “confidently arm our peace officers with the weapons of law enforcement,” including electronic surveillance. WE CAN’T AFFORD unilateral disarmament of the FBI and Secret Service at a time when a ruthless totalitarian adversary relies heavily on subversion. (Anthony Harrigan’s column is distributed by the U.S. Industrial Council, Home Federal Building, Nashville, Tennessee 37219).

LILCo’s 1,000 largest residential users, who consume more than six times as much electricity as the average customer, are billed on time-of-date rates. “We have people with all-elebtric homes and very large homes. Some have greenhouses, pool heaters and, believe it or not, some even have fish pond heaters,” according to Jan Hickman, a company official. When the temperature exceeds 81 degrees between 10 a m. and 10 p.m. during the summer and electrical demand is extremely high, the customers are billed at 30.4 cents per kilowatt-hour compared to 3.4 cents during the evenings. An automatic beeper with a red light warns high-use customers when the higher price is in effect . The idea behind the time-of-day system is that by shifting demand away from peak periods, the need for additional generating capacity is eliminated In addition, the extra electricity needed to meet extremely heavy demand is the most expensive to produce. Thus time-of day rates encourage electrical use when

Russell Baker

It's a good thing I kept that old 60's hawk suit

By RUSSELL BAKER c. 1980 N.Y. Times News Service NEW YORK Coming back after five weeks in another world to find everybody wearing hawk feathers was a shocker The style, I gathered, was set by President Carter with his extraordinary faculty for being born again and again and again. In his latest re-emergence he had been born as a hawk and was perched in the White House Rose Garden on a very strong public-opinion poll That was all right with me. I had my hawk feathers stored in the closet. Put them there in 1967. The kids made fun of me for that. “Dad,” they said, “you’ll never need those old hawk feathers any more.” “Two things a man ought to never throw out,” I told them, “are his wedding suit and his hawk feathers. With a wedding suit in the closet, you can always prove that

Pork barrel bill predictable

Projects as irresistable as the call of the wild

By OTIS PIKE Newhouse News Service WASHINGTON Will Jerry Brown, building on the momentum he generated in Maine, become the 40th president of the United States? Will the Soviets ever leave Afghanistan? Will the president ever leave the White House? Will the federal budget ever get balanced? In a world full of such anxipties and questions, it is comforting to have a few predictables. The swallows will come back to Capistrano. The geese will leave for Canada. The Congress will pass a pork barrel bill. Last week, in a spectacle as irresistable as the call of the wild and as inevitable as the coming of spring, the House of Representatives passed that monumental piece of legislation labeled the Water Resources Development Act of 1979. They started in 1979, but there were some dangers along the way. Would the migration of the geese be as awesome were it not fraught with danger? The president, for example, has rumbled and grumbled about the bill, and some have interpreted those rumblings and grumblings as threats to veto. Veto is

the utility has the capacity to produce electricity cheaply and easily. The City of Los Angeles also recently adopted a residential time-of-day rate. “There are some 500 customers on it so far. About 90 percent of them have reduced their bills and the average savings is about 10 percent,” says Dennis Whitney, manager of rates. In addition, the US. Department of Energy is sponsoring some 15 demonstration projects throughout the country that use the rate. The system could become more popular when the results are tabulated this spring. Utilities also are increasingly using seasonal variations in rates. For instance, in 1977, Seattle implemented a 10 percent surcharge during the winter months when electrical demand is strongest “Seasonal rates are becoming very com mon,” says Herb Blinder of the American Public Power Association, which represents municipally owned utilities. These “innovative” rates are by no means recent development. Ken Lawren-

you were slender once. With hawk feathers you’re always ready to spring right back into fashion every few years. Discos come and discos go, but hawk feathers go on forever.” “This is only 1967, Dad,” the little moppets pointed out. “There aren’t any discos yet.” “That just goes to prove,” 1 explained, “that things always get worse before they get better.” And sure enough, discos appeared and now hawk feathers are back. I took the kids with me up to the closet It seemed a good chance to call their attention to the virtues of long-range planning. Of course, they weren’t kids any more in the technical sense, since like most kids nowadays they weighed in at about 240 pounds and stood about six feet, not measuring the hair. There it was. My old hawk suit Had it tailor-made in 1961. “That was the year

thinkable, but unlikely. It is an election year; there are still convention delegates to be chosen from 48 states. While the president did veto the water project appropriation bill in 1978 and his veto was sustained, it was a brusing battle. 1980 is not a year for bruises, and the president, while not exactly sounding a call to retreat, is retreating. Last year he bravely pronounced the policy that in order to eliminate the “foot in the door” approach to starting huge ojects, Congress should be required to appropriate the entire cost when it approves any project. This year, for one huge project. Lock and Dam 26 on the Mississippi River, the president’s budget called for s4l million. Current estimated cost is $491 million. Other voices have not merely rumbled and grumbled, they have been downright hostile toward the water projects bill. But what do the Environmental Policy Center, the National Taxpayer’s Union and the League of Women Voters know about water projects? For that matter, what does the Army Corps of Engineers, which will build them, know? Assistant Army secretary for civil

ce, assistant rates manager for the Philadelphia Electric Co., notes his firm has had seasonal rates for more than 10 years and time-of-day rates for very large users for longer. However, such rates now are enjoying increased popularity, in part because high costs have mandated conservation, and in part because Congress has mandated the scrutiny of such rates under the 1978 Public Utilities Regulatory Policy Act. According to Howard Perry, an official with the US. Energy Department’s Economic Regulatory Administration, about 20 percent of the regulated utilities and the public commissions that regulate them have taken a serious look at in novative rate structures, “There is progress, although not nearly as much progress as we hoped.” he says. In an effort to encourage energy efficiency, some utilities and utility commissions are moving away from the traditional declining block rate under which electricity becomes cheaper per unit the more you use. The city of Wellesley, Mass., has adop-

everybody was raring to go anywhere and pay any price to bear the torch for America,” I reminded the kids. “It must have been cheaper to get gas in those days,” said the bigger of the two, lifting the thing into the light. Seven or eight feathers fell off the lapels and a patch of hawk down used in the lining fell loose and drifted to the floor. “This thing must have been made in the U. 5.,” said the lesser lad. “If you’d bought a German or Japanese hawk suit it wouldn’t be falling apart already.” I put it on, hopped onto the top of the armoireand cawed for the kids. “Light at the end of the tunnel,” I cawed. The kids said it sounded terrible. I explained that it is very hard to caw “light at the end of the tunnel” because of the liquid sounds at the beginning and end of the phrase, and anyhow I was out of practice. “Stop the billion Chinese Communists

works, Michael Blumenfeld. said he could not support 54 projects contained in the bill which had “not received full departmental and administrative review” and which would cost at today’s prices billion. What does he know? On the floor of the House, the opposition was led by a middle level member of the Public Works Committee. Rep. Robert W Edgar, D-Pa., but what do Methodist ministers know about water projects? Of the 46 members of the committee, Edgar got five votes against the bill on final passage. Of the 16 Republicans, he got one, and he was a freshman. He will learn. The Public Works Committee has a reputation for keeping track of its friends. Those who vote against it are reputed to have difficulties when they have little projects of their own which need a push. Rep. Richard Ottinger, D-N.Y.. found it wise, if not necessary, to take to the floor to deny this hideous libel. Said He; “There have been attacks on these gentlemen in the press as regards retribution against people who oppose them . . . I would just like to point out for the record that they have included in this bill projects that

ted a flat rate of 3.6 cents per kilowatthour And the Michigan Public Service Commission has ordered inverted rates the opposite of declining block rates. For instance. Detroit Edison Co. charges residential customers for the first 500 kilowatt-hours at 4.6 cents each. The price then rises gradually, and after 1,000 kilowatt-hours the price is 5.1 cents each “The philosophy is conservation," says Paul Carlson, an economic analyst with the Michigan Public Service Commission. Others say such pricing reflects more accurately the true cost of electricity, given scarce energy supplies. In conjunction with pricing, many utilities also are using other innovative techniques to reduce their peak loads and encourage conservation. There has been greater use of interruptible rates at large plants under which a utility asks a plant to cut down on electrical use during the utility’s peak demand periods. The plant would be given a cheaper rate if it complies. And LILCo is promoting solar hot water

February 14,1980, The Putnam County Banner Graphic

armed with the atom bomb,” I cawed, and fairly respectably, too, considering how rusty my caw had become The smaller kid lifted me down from the armoire and let me perch on his index finger. “Dad,” he said, “your hawk suit is out of date. It’s not the billion Chinese Communists we’ve got to stop They are now the great Chinese people and buy our Coca-VKOLA." I was pleased to hear that that one had turned out all right “It just goes to prove,” I explained to the kids, “that if you don’t blow yourself up every time you get into high dudgeon, you can pump carbonated water into the most bellicose stomachs on earth ” I hopped to the floor and strutted around cawing, “Nuke ’em. nuke ’em!” The kids were shocked. Nobody wanted to nukp anybody, they explained All anybody wanted to do was boycott the Olympic Games, get the Russians out of Afghanistan and save Baluchistan “Listen, and caw after me.” said the bigger kid: “Increase defense spending by five percent after allowing for inflation.” I tried it. but in my old hawk suit I fell silly. Why did you have to raise the weapons budget to discourage people from attending a track meet? Or to save Baluchistan'' When President Carter promised to save the South Bronx, he (Jjdn’t ask for more bullets, did he° Whait was Baluchistan, anyway? It sounded like a suburb of Cleveland. “Dad.” said the bigger boy, “you’re oblivious to the Strait of Hormuz and the obtuse Soviet obtrusion toward the obverse shore of the Persian Gulf which must be obviated if stability is to be obtained.” My hawk suit was obviously obsolete. To conceal my. embarrassment I cawed. “Unleash Chiang Kai-shek! ” “No, no.” the kids cawed in unison. “Unleash the CIA ” In the old suit, you just didn’t know what to caw any more. The kids thought it would be a mistake to wear it in public. Suppose you wore it in Washington and it started you cheering for the wrong war. The kids agreed to take it away and burn it. Meanwhile, I have a new one on order I am in hiding until it arrives. I spend the days studying the atlas in search of the Strait of Hormuz, and occasionally make fascinating discoveries. Take Baluchistan, for example. It’s nowhere at all near Cleveland.

are very significant to my district in Mamaroneck, N.Y. I want to express my appreciation for that and point out that the gentlemen have done this despite the fact that I have disagreed with them on a number of occassions...” Congressman Ottinger is too modest. He is the founder of the Congressional Environmental Study Conference and it is worth those projects in Mamaroneck to have his supporting the bill, which he did. The futility of trying to hold back the political tide became evident when Congressman Edgar offered an amendment to cut one vital water project from the bill a monument to be erected in Washington, D C., honoring the Corps of engineers. He lost. 133 to 273. After all. everyone else has a monument. The bill passed, 283 to 127. The National Taxpayer’s Union put out a release saying wistfully. “It is ironic that some of the bill’s staunchest support comes from those who have continually advocated cutting government spending and balancing the budget." What do they know about the call of the wild 9

heaters to reduce demand Some utilities are even installing remote-controlled devices which shut off condensers of air conditioners for sevenminute intervals during peak periods. Many of the rates are still controversial and under debate. Some argue that declining block rates make sense because each customer must pay for transmission, service and administrative costs, no matter how much electricity is used It makes sense therefore to collect those costs in the first block of electricity sold, the detractors say. Officials of the utility industry also note that each utility has its own profile and caution that innovative rate structures simply can't be applied across the board. For instance, they say. seasonal rates make little sense where there isn’t sharp variation in usage from winter to summer And time-of-dav rates may not be worth the extra costs for small users, given the cost of time-use meters and savings achieved.

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